We run our online databases through a "proxy server." This allows us to authenticate members of our community who are off campus and grant them off-site access to our restricted databases and resources. Once in a while, our proxy server and the other parts of our online catalog stop working or a database works, but not through the proxy, because of technical issues experienced by the vendor.
If you would like to search our online catalog when the system is down, try visiting http://sawyerlibrary.worldcat.org. This subset of WorldCat reflects every title acquired to the library up until twenty-four hours before.